Better than Ice Cream
by Know Err
Summary: Falling in love at a coffee shop.


A/N: I dibs-ed (dibsded?) writing a Lost Girl fic on Mary Lambert's song, "She Keeps Me Warm," on tumblr ages ago but got too busy with other things. Then I found the half finished draft and it took a life of its own. I'm not gonna lie, this Lauren is OOC and my writing is kinda overdramatic/rant-y for this one. Eventually, I got confused about what song fits this story.

For Nic. This is really not what I was described as a "good" fanfic but ask and you shall receive. Hope you have a better week and finish off that horrible coffee.

As usual, mistakes are all mine in the same way Zoie Palmer will never be. [Conceal, don't feel.]

* * *

Lauren tucked her hair behind her ear, only to have a lock fall back in front of her face as she wiped the table clean. It was a difficult few months but she had managed to not break anything when clearing tables. As much as the scholarships helped, her studies were not cheap and she only had herself to rely on.

The bell that hung by the door made her anxiously look up in that direction. _Pavlov_, she thought wryly.

_She_ comes in every Wednesday carrying a sketchpad and a book. She orders the same thing, chrysanthemum tea, and sits at the same table, the one across the register. Sometimes she comes in with a tiny girl with some sort of shoe fetish.

"Lauren," Dyson growled, "Stop day-dreaming and bring those stack of plates to the kitchen." It pissed Dyson off whenever he saw Lauren not faithfully performing to his standards of indentured servitude. She thought of herself as a hardworker but he just really disliked her for some reason.

Lauren couldn't deny that the feelings were mutual.

Lauren resisted the urge to roll her eyes and did as the scruffy, grumpy manager commanded. She only hoped _she _didn't hear him belittle her.

_Her _name was Bo. Lauren had overheard the short, shoe fetishist girl in dark clothes call _her _that the week before. Lauren saw that Bo and the other girl were close and she half wondered if they were together. However, a smooth talking guy in a funny hat had come in and kissed the petite girl and they left together, hand in hand.

It gave Lauren a little hope.

Just a teeny tiny bit.

Then she berated herself for even thinking that Bo would be available, or that she'd even be interested in someone like Lauren. Bo was very beautiful and had a gorgeous smile. She had the kind of personality that lit up a room; Lauren had seen her smile so many times in the past months and was still dumbstruck each time.

Lauren felt plain, clumsy, and awkward in comparison.

Besides, Bo was probably taken. And, if she wasn't, she probably had a line of eager men and women waiting for her. Why pick the weird coffee shop girl?

So, Lauren went about her work, making coffee and cleaning tables, occasionally secretly glancing in Bo's direction when she wasn't looking. She managed to trip twice and knocked a tea cup over (_it was thankfully empty_) but luckily, Bo wasn't paying attention.

* * *

She was manning the cashier when Bo came up to the counter.

"Hey," Bo said cheerfully with a dimpled smile and placed her things on the counter to take out her wallet.

"Hello," Lauren replied. "What can I get you today?"

"Well, um," Bo looked at her chest to read her name tag [_Wait, did she just check out my boobs?]_, "Lauren." She laughed, "I'd like to try something different today. Any suggestions?"

"We have a large tea selection that you might like to try," Lauren suggested. She guessed Bo wasn't much for coffee.

"What do you usually get for yourself?" Bo asked.

Lauren smiled and looked at the counter, "I usually get any of the mint but I've been told it smells like medicine or cough drops so maybe you wouldn't like it."

"Hm, how about you surprise me, then?" Bo smiled. "I'll have to take it 'to-go.'"

"O-Okay," Lauren softly murmured. She entered everything on the cash register and Bo paid, her hand touching Lauren's.

Flustered, Lauren prepared the tea. _Green tea with lime blossoms and verbena._

Bo removed the cover off the paper cup Lauren handed her, "Mmm, this smells good. Thank you, Lauren." She gathered her things and tossed Lauren a wink before heading for the door.

Lauren ran after her, opening the cafe's the glass door for her. "Have a good day," Lauren stuttered out quickly. She smiled a little at the floor before glancing up.

"See you next week," Bo smirked.

When she walked back to the counter, Lauren realized Bo had left one of her sketchbooks. She thought about running after the woman but realized that Dyson might not be pleased if she left the shop.

Curious, she flipped the sketchbook open to the first page. _Bo Dennis,_ the first page said in elegant cursive. It had Bo's phone number and email address.

_Should I let her know she left this here?_ Lauren thought about it but another customer came up to the counter. Lauren sighed softly and hid the sketchbook in a safe drawer.

* * *

"Lauren, what is this?" Dyson asked when he found the notebook later that day. He unceremoniously flipped it open.

"Hey, this is me!" He was both impressed and flattered. He tucked a hand under his bearded chin looking appreciatively at the picture.

Lauren took a peek, it was indeed a sketch of Dyson. The details were amazing. It was signed with Bo's name and it was apparently titled "Charming Coffee Shop Manager."

Lauren wanted to gag.

And then crawl pathetically under the counter with a box of macaroons.

Maybe with beer and pizza.

"A customer left it, the one that sits over there all the time," she pointed to the table Bo usually picked. "I was planning on giving it back to her when she came back."

Dyson coughed and puffed up his chest, "I'll return it to her."

Disappointed but unwilling to get into an argument over something trivial, Lauren sighed and let it go to carry on with the rest of her shift, serving affogato to a couple of elderly businessmen.

* * *

Lauren was tasked to close the shop that Friday. Everyone else already left in a hurry leaving her to do it alone. As she went out to push the garbage bins closer to the dumpster, she noticed someone picking through the garbage for a half-eaten sandwich.

"Don't eat that!" she yelled just as the person was about to take a bite, "Please."

The vagabond looked at her fearful eyes but Lauren softened her voice, "Look, I won't call the cops, just please, don't eat that. I'll get you some of the bread left over from today."

She hurried back into the shop, charged herself for a large cup of coffee and picked out some of the bread that they were going to throw away. The shop prided itself with its freshly baked breads and pastries so everything that wasn't bought by the end of the day was thrown out.

She ran out again, carefully so as not to spill the coffee, and was happy to see that the homeless man was still outside, albeit watching her oddly like she was growing two heads.

"S-sorry," Lauren stuttered and handed him the warm cup and a full bag of bread. "If you need to go to a shelter for the night, I can walk you there since I'm dropping the rest of the bread over there."

"Thank you," the man mumbled softly but shook his head. He gave her a shaky smile but it was full of gratitude. With a nod, he slowly shuffled away.

Lauren exhaled softly and watched him to go before finally cleaning out the bins. She hated that the food was wasted but really couldn't do anything about it. Still, she thought it unfair that people could easily take advantage of the things some people need but don't have to survive.

Pushing thoughts away, she went back inside and set about moping the floors.

The chimes attached to the door made a sound and she spoke before she looked up, "Sorry, we're closed."

"I-um, I just wanted to ask if you found something I left the other day?"

Lauren looked up so fast, she nearly sprained her neck, "Sorry. Hi. Um. You left your sketchbook at the counter."

"Yeah," Bo smiled shyly. "Do you still have it?"

"My boss hid it for safe-keeping, I don't know where he put it."

"Did you look at it?"

Lauren shrugged, "I saw the first page just to check if it was really yours. My boss opened another page and he saw the drawing you did of him. It's pretty good."

Lauren was surprised when Bo touched her arm, "Did you see any other pages?"

"No, sorry," Lauren replied, butterflies making a small tornado in her stomach.

"Oh," Bo sounded disappointed as she pulled her hand away, "Well, I guess I'll come back for it tomorrow when you open. Uh, see you then." There was that bright smile again.

Lauren was still staring at the door even as the chimes fell silent.

* * *

"Damn, it's hot," Dyson grimaced as he wiped at his sweaty brow. The air conditioner had died on them that morning and by mid-morning, their little shop, covered with glass windows, felt like an oven.

Lauren cursed modern architecture for not taking glass's emissivity into consideration. Her mind wandered off to the correlations between poor urban planning, urban heat islands, and global warming. _Simple physics and common sense combined with less greed_, she thought. _Modernity, my ass._

Eventually, her thoughts shifted back to a talented brunette. She had waited for Bo to arrive all morning but she didn't come. She pictured the way she smiled, the crinkle in her eyes… Her mind was much happier to venture off into dreamland instead of contemplating the heat she found herself in.

"Let's close up for a bit. Customers don't even want to come in 'cause it's so hot. I wanna grab something cold to drink," Dyson suggested as he pulled on the collar of his polo.

Lauren, who shed her uniform shirt, happily agreed. Even in her light tanktop, the temperature was unbearable inside.

She and Dyson walked together to the gas station. Dyson chatted up the cashier while Lauren rolled her eyes, got herself some ice cream and napkins, paid, and left the store in a hurry.

Only to stop dead in her tracks.

Bo was standing just a few feet away from her in a white tank top washing a Camaro. She was washing a car in her white tank top.

Her white, wet tank top.

Her white, wet and see-through tank top.

And that _smirk._

Lauren stood and stared for so long, she didn't realize that her vanilla ice cream was melting and dripping all her hand. She found it a little hard to breathe and had to unconsciously swallow the pool of saliva that accumulated in her mouth.

_Is this real life or is it just fantasy?_

Dyson walked cluelessly out of the store behind her but Lauren held her hand up as an afterthought to get him to stop. They both stared at Bo as scrubbed her car clean.

Finally, Lauren's legs worked and before she realized it, she was standing right in front of Bo.

"H-hi," Lauren said, still somewhat stupefied by the sight of the sudsy seductress.

"Hey," Bo smiled brightly. The switch from hot and sultry to hot _and _cute nearly gave Lauren a whiplash. "You're all wet and sticky."

"I am," Lauren said. Then her eyes widened, "Um, I mean, what?"

"Your ice cream," Bo pointed out. And there was that smirk again. "Are you gonna eat that?"

Bo daintily took the ice cream from Lauren's hand and took the napkin from her other hand to wrap the soggy cone and handed it back to Lauren's clean hand. "Let's wash this mess off of you," she said, holding Lauren's wrist and gently rinsed her sticky fingers with the hose that she had used to rinse the car. "Careful, your other hand might get messy, too."

"Hey," Dyson said, interrupting the moment. Lauren deflated. _No escape from reality._

"Hi," Bo smiled, as she rubbed away the ice cream from Lauren's fingers with her free hand.

"Ah, um, Bo, this is Dyson, my boss," Lauren tried to smile but it looked like a grimace as she took her clean hand away. "He has your sketch book." She quickly ate some of her ice cream so that it wouldn't melt some more and to keep herself from grimacing at the mess it probably made all over her face.

"I have it in my car actually, though mine isn't nice as yours," Dyson said, leaning his hand against the vintage car charmingly.

Lauren tried not to roll her eyes and vomit her breakfast as they blatantly flirted.

"Yunno what? I'm just gonna -yeah," Lauren pointed to the shop's direction and started walking away. She looked at ice cream and thought about throwing it away but decided not to. With its too-sweet coldness in her mouth, she thought, _At least, it wasn't all a total loss._

Her fingers and wrist still felt warm from where Bo touched.

* * *

And it was a week of watching Dyson flirting with Bo that sent Lauren's mood to shit. What was even odder was Dyson's increased antagonism towards her. Still, she was able to smile genuinely at the customers.

She served the regulars their usual orders off the top of her head.

_Sandwich and tea to the lady in corporate attire who came in perfunctorily during lunch time._

_Strawberry shortcake for the frazzled-looking uni student who never left the shop till closing._

_Half-moon cookies for the little ones who came in with their tired but happy mothers in the late afternoon._

_And strong black coffee for the three women who sat by the window once a week, exchanging pictures of their dogs and cats and cackling over something or another._

Lauren sighed slowly, wiping the counter, and tried to smile. _Cheer up. It's not like she even slightest interest. Who are you kidding? _She shook her head and scrubbed harder. She looked up when she saw customer came up.

To her surprise, delight, and unending grief, it was Bo.

"There you are," Bo smiled as soon as their eyes met. She held up her sketchbook, "I got it back. Dyson kept forgetting where he put it."

"That's great," Lauren gave a quick, forced smile but resumed her scrubbing, boring holes into the wooden surface with her eyes. _Wax on, wax off._

Mr. Miagi would have been proud.

Bo tried to start a conversation but Lauren gave one word answers and a few uninterested hums of agreement. It didn't take long for Bo to notice.

"I just," Bo hesitated. "Well, I wanted to just say thank you… so, um… thanks." She smiled unsurely.

The smile wavered when Lauren didn't look back up.

"Don't mention it," Lauren mumbled and gave the wooden counter a half-hearted, half-smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. Finally, swallowing her pride and bitterness, she looked up at Bo's face and gave her another forced smile, "Can I take your order?"

Bo took a deep breath and looked like she wanted to say something but changed her mind, "Um. No, thanks. I'll… Um, see you tomorrow." She left as quickly as she could.

When the bell gave a soft tinkle, Lauren stared guiltily after the closed door.

A throat was politely cleared and she looked at the customer who was next in line. The woman's eyes smiled kindly behind her glasses but with raised eyebrows. It was as if they communicated silently and Lauren felt a little cowed by the gentle accusation she saw.

_No need to be mean_, those eyes seemed to say.

Lauren handed her the tray with coffee and plate of sablés, jostling it slightly.

"Careful," the woman said in a warm, slightly accented sotto.

Suddenly there was a clap of thunder and the sky began to pour buckets. In just a few minutes, the street outside was soaked by the deluge.

"It's been hot but cloudy all day," the customer murmured as she paid for her drink. "Finally, it rains." She smiled at Lauren and sat with the women by the window, observing the world outside. People scurried about trying to avoid getting wet.

* * *

The rain didn't stop even as Lauren was closing up for the night. She pulled her jacket around herself and fixed her umbrella as she jiggled the shop's door to make sure it was locked. Her shoes were soaked and she felt water squelch between her toes.

Deciding that it was best to simply call a cab rather than brave the miserable weather, she walked to the corner for a better vantage point. The summer rain was warm on her skin, wetting her face as the umbrella failed to cover her adequately.

Across the street, she noticed someone else closing shop.

Bo.

She saw Bo drop the keys and curse. She wasn't wearing a jacket and she didn't have an umbrella.

Lauren called out to her but she didn't look up. The fat droplets of rain on concrete and the splashes caused by passing cars were making too much noise.

Lauren bit her lip and tapped her foot indecisively. She pulled out her cellphone and, after pulling up courage with a deep breath, her thumb dialed several digits.

"Hello?" Bo answered on the other end, confused. She ran under an awning to shield herself from the rain.

"I-it's me, Lauren." Lauren said, a little too loudly. A little too nervously. "From the coffee shop?"

Bo turned to the coffee shop's direction and saw Lauren standing by the street corner. Lauren gave her a small, awkward wave which was a feat since she had to balance her phone and her umbrella.

* * *

Lauren braved the flooded street, her jeans getting wet as water splashed to her shins, and crossed to the other side where Bo stood. Lauren stood mutely holding her umbrella over them like an idiot.

A cab conveniently stopped in front of them, prompting her to ask, "Do you want to share a cab?"

"How did you know my number?" Bo asked curiously.

Lauren's mouth open and closed like a fish. Then she mumbled to the collar of her jacket, "It was on your sketchbook." _It took me five seconds to memorize it. _To her relief, the impatient cab driver honked and saved her from further explaining.

"Where to?" the driver asked, smacking his gum as they struggled to get inside.

"Uh," Lauren looked at Bo. "I live nearby, if you want to dry up a little- Or you could head home directly." Lauren added quickly, moving her hands defensively. _I'm not a clingy creep._She shuffled to the other end of the backseat.

"No, that's fine," Bo nodded, "I don't think it will rain that long anyway."

Lauren gave the driver her address and they were off, driving through the wet streets. Lauren stared outside, observing as the lampost cast a shiny, silver sheen on the wet side walks. Buildings passed by slowly but her heart was beating so fast.

She jumped a little when her traitorous hand touched something warm.

Bo's hand.

But before she can pull away and apologize profusely, fingers curled into the fold of her palm.

"I'm not gonna bite, you know," Bo laughed behind her other hand. She was looking out the other window but Lauren could see her reflection on the glass. She was a little shy, too.

It made Lauren duck her head, cheeks reddening slightly, to hide the smile the spread on her face. She gently took Bo's hand into her own, giving it a soft squeeze.

* * *

Lauren's apartment was small but comfortable, crammed with papers, books, and soft things neatly organized.

"I'll get you a towel," she said to Bo and practically ran to her room, nervous again. She returned quickly, handing Bo a towel and a spare shirt and showed the other woman where the bathroom was.

She was sitting on the couch wearing drier clothes when Bo stepped out. Lauren prepared cups of chamomile for both of them.

"I have juice, too," Lauren offered, "If you'd rather have that, instead."

But Bo only smiled and blew steam from her cup and they took long moments just staring at each other.

"I didn't know you worked near the shop," Lauren opened.

Bo nodded after taking a sip of her drink, "I work with my friend, Kenzi. She's the spunky one that comes in with me for coffee sometimes. Sketching's a just hobby of mine but she wanted me to help her design shoes."

"What else do you draw?" the blonde asked.

"You really didn't look at my sketchbook?" Bo bit her lip coyly, twirling a lock of blonde hair.

Lauren tried not to groan. _She will be the death of me. _She cleared her throat and shook her head, "No, I didn't. I mean, I saw Dyson's face and it was pretty good but..."

Bo dug through her satchel and pulled out the sketchbook that Lauren had found. She gripped it tightly in contemplation but, meeting Lauren's eyes, handed it over decisively.

"You were avoiding me," Bo said. "I thought you'd seen it."

"Seen what?" Lauren looked at her confusedly but slowly opened the sketchbook in her hands. She already saw the sketch of Dyson's face so she flipped it over to the next one.

The next page was filled with different faces. Some caricatures, other realistic. Lauren recognized some of them to be regular customers. Some corners and pages held doodles of tea cups and scrawled lyrics and names of the drinks she served.

And then page after page started to reveal only one subject. Dozens of sketches of one person.

"Has anybody told you your eyes light up when you smile?" Bo asked softly, almost a whisper. "It's so easy tell when you're faking it like when Dyson acts like dick towards you. But you're very attractive when you smile, you know."

Lauren regarded her with silent surprise.

"I remember this one time, a little boy knocked a glass of milk over the floor and you had just mopped. But you just smiled at him and told him it was okay," Bo said. "The way you smiled... I knew you meant it."

"It was just milk," Lauren said. She flipped to another page, it was her handing coffee to a homeless man. Another page of her showed a smiling face. The next page was of her looking out the window, it was just an outline of her body but the clothes gave it away.

She glanced back at Bo.

"I've wanted you to smile like that at me," Bo confessed wistfully, "You could smile for everyone else but your eyes never really meet mine when you smile at me." She placed a finger under Lauren's chin and stared into her eyes. They both leaned towards each other.

Lauren could see herself reflected in Bo's eyes but Bo hesitated.

"You always look so melancholy when you think no one's looking," Bo said. She dropped her hand and pulled away.

Lauren jerked reflexively.

"I think the rain's stopped," Bo said, looking across the room to the window. "I should probably go."

"I-I'll walk you home," Lauren said.

* * *

There was still a slight drizzle so Bo agreed to sharing a large umbrella with Lauren. Her house was a twenty-minute walk away from Lauren's and they spent twenty minutes in silence. Only the squeak of shoes on wet concrete and the occasional whoosh of a passing car.

Lauren was still thinking about the implications of Bo's confession.

"This is it," Bo said and she turned to step on the stoop in front of her home. Lauren closed her umbrella with a soft click.

"Did you want to come up?" Bo asked her.

"No," Lauren shook her head to the side but, before Bo could express her disappointment, the other woman stepped into her space. Tea colored eyes gazed deeply into hers.

Serious.

Contemplative.

"I might lose my nerve," she whispered against her cheek but Bo could feel that smile on her skin.

Bo leaned fully into her and Lauren hands pressed against her lower back. The yellowed light cast a glow about them and Lauren kissed her.

Warm as rain.

Tender.

"You're shaking," Bo said when they pulled apart to breathe.

"You are way out of my league," Lauren said. "This is some sort of hallucination from a bad batch of the new tea Dyson asked me to sample."

Bo laughed loudly and poked Lauren on the nose. "You are ridiculous." And then Bo grabbed her jacket collar, "Can I kiss you again?"

And Lauren nodded, cradling Bo's face in her hands.

* * *

"Uh, I think I'll have, um..." the elderly customer in front of her was squinting at the sign boards. "Uh..."

"I'd recommend some hazelnut if you like your coffee sweet but a few customers also prefer French Vanilla," Lauren added helpfully. "We also just got our shipment of special order Barako coffee if you'd like something strong." Lauren was about to get into a lengthy discussion on _terroir_ and taste quality of premium coffee but the bell rang, signalling the arrival of her favorite customer.

Bo strutted up to line up at the counter.

"I'd recommend the tea," Bo said, butting in. "Chrysanthemum will cool you right off." She winked at Lauren behind the customer's back.

Lauren bit back a grin.

The customer turned and seized Bo up, as if to assess her expertise, but Bo only grinned charmingly and won him over.

"I'll have that, please," the customer told Lauren. To Bo, he said, "Thank you."

After serving the customer, she let Bo drag her over to Dyson, "Lauren's taking a break."

"Fine," Dyson said sighed because it really was Lauren's break time but he was only nice when Bo was around. As they walked out of the shop, Lauren could feel the his glare on her back.

As soon as they were out on the curb, Bo mauled her with a kiss.

"You are so cute," Bo said, licking her own lip.

"If you say so," Lauren murmured, holding her hand.

"You are," Bo insisted. "You were about to get your nerd on with that poor old man."

Lauren rolled her eyes good-naturedly but smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling.

"There it is," Bo said fondly, tucking Lauren's hair. "A gorgeous smile from someone so gorgeous."

Lauren's smile brightened further, eyes shining.

"Come on," she said, giving Bo's knuckles a kiss and pulling her along to walk to the gas station, "I'm craving ice cream."

* * *

A/N: Will update Bo Peep soon. I know I said end of Feb but I'm stuck. I have about a thousand words in so I'll try to get the ball rolling ASAP.

Thanks for reading!


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